The Beaconsfield rescue mission, which is now tunnelling around a rock fall, will probably not reach the two miners until Monday. If you would like to help support their families during this difficult time, the AWU has set up a hardship fund: Donations to the AWU Beaconsfield Miners’ Support Fund can be made at any [...]
It’s a terrible pity that on Workers Memorial Day we are faced with the news that the two remaining trapped miners were almost certainly killed in the earthquake. The body of one man was brought up last night, and the coroner said the machine the three men had been seen working on had been directly [...]
Do you remember Juice Bar Amber, the 16-year-old girl who stood up to her boss’s attempt to force her onto an AWA that cut her pay? The SDA took her case to the AIRC this week, and the company gave an undertaking to pay her under the pre-existing collective agreement — a nice win for [...]
On Tuesday evening, an earthquake of 2.1 magnitude caused a collapse at a gold mine in Beaconsfield, Tasmania. Fourteen workers made it back to the surface, but three — Brent Webb, Todd Russell, and Larry Knight — are still trapped 925 metres below ground. Despite the length of time since the earthquake, there is still [...]
A couple of weeks ago, Finlay Engineering sacked three workers. The press has picked up on the idea that they were sacked for “smirking” at their boss — which is true, but that’s just an excuse. What the men had in common was that they were union members who opposed management’s attempts to slash wages. [...]
Kevin Andrews says: Detailed information and assistance will be provided to both employers and employees on how they can best utilise the Australian Government’s WorkChoices reforms in their workplace and industry. That sounds very even-handed and fair, doesn’t it? But the truth, as usual, doesn’t live up to the Government’s rhetoric. The program that will [...]
The LHMU will launch its Clean Start: Fair Deal for Cleaners campaign this week. The union knows, from its experience in Western Australia under the Kierath IR reforms, that the cleaning industry will be hard hit by WorkChoices. Cleaning contractors will be forced into a bidding war on wages, and workers in the industry — [...]
In Athens, Greece, 40 000 tonnes of rubbish are piling up on city streets, as a strike by garbage collectors enters its second week. They want recognition that their work is hazardous, exposing them to toxic substances and dangerous objects. The strike has only run a week and a half, but the smell is already overwhelming. [...]
As I explained in an earlier post, WorkChoices undermines State-based health and safety legislation by preventing timely inspection of accident sites by union representatives. The delay could allow companies to tamper with evidence or come up with a cover story to avoid prosecution. While that’s bad enough by itself, the Howard Government is already planning [...]
The Government has been forced to retreat from its attempt to prosecute Queensland’s flea pit strikers. The group of 75 mining workers stopped work for two days because they refused to live “knee-deep in shit and infested with fleas and feral cats”. The company cleaned up their accommodation and they went back to work. Months [...]
Comments